Vehicle-tire.



i. W. PEPPLE.

VEHICLE TIRE.

APPucmoN man Aus.5. 19m

afn, wey/a JOHN W. .'PIEPIELIII,` 0F SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

VEHICLE-TIRE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1918.

Appuemon mea august 5, 191e. serial No. 113,250'.

To all -uhom 'it may concern.'

Be it known thatl. Joux IV. PEPPLE, a citizen of the l'nited States. residin at San Antonio, in the county of Bexar, tate of Texas. have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vehicle-Tires; and I do hereby dec-lare the followinv to be a full, clear, andexact descri )tion o? the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to tires such as are used for automobiles and other like vehicles in which it is desirable to absorb the shocks incident to rapid travel over roads 'by means of an inherent resiliency in the tire.

It is well known'that a large proportion of motor vehicle troubles and accidents arise from the employment of the ordinary pneumatic tire in which the tire is kept distended b v means of air pressure since any lo sV of this pressure, due to punctures or the like immediately renders the tire'ineliicient.` I It is also well recognized that solid or 'cellular tires of the ordinary type fail to possess the proper resilience necessary for ra id travel and that while such solid or su stantia'lly solid tires operate well on slow moving vehicles such as trucks and the like,

they are highly ineiiicient on pleasure cars and other cars where the speed used exceeds those used in heavy haulin The principal object of the Jresent invention is to provide an im rove form of tire 85 which, while not depen ing on air pressure for the maintenance, of its shape under normal conditions, will nevertheless inherently possess all of the elasticity and resiliency of a. pneumatic tire. Y

Another important object of the invention is to provide an improved form of tire wherein the stresses tending to distort the tireunder servie conditions will be taken care of and distriiuted in such manner as to prevent undue distortion or stress on any part of the tire.

' A third important object of the invention is to providev an improved form of tire wherein the minor distortions, such as occur when running over small Vpebbles and the like, will be localized so that those parts of the tire intended to resist heavier stresses will not be subject'to the .wear incident to a multiplicity of minor strains.

With the above and other objects in view,

as will be hereinafter apparent the invention consists in eneral of certain novel details of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and specifically claimed.

In the ,accompanying drawing, like characters of reference indicate like parts inthe several views, and:-

Fgure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section throu l1 a portion of a tire constructed in accor ance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is la perspective view of a portion of such tire, the tire being shown in transverse section.

'In carrying out the objects of the invention I preferablyY form the tire of rubber, which may' or may not be reinforced in the usual man er with canvas or the like, and

the tire is of general oval cross section, 'the' Ivided with an abruptly thickened portion 13 which forms the ground engaging ortion of the tire, the sides being substantie ly perpendicular to the outer face of the portion I 13 so as to provide anti-skidding means. These arches have a common central spring line. The inner periphery of each arch is arcuate at the crown as indicated at 14, the radius of the curve bein such as to provide for a gradual decrease 1n the thickness of the walls toward the spring line. The haunches of each arch have their inner peripheries diver ent toward the' spring line on the straight ines in cross section as indicated at 15, so that the thinnest places in the tire are dis osed centrall between the respective arc crowns. Extending across the center of the tire is a tension web 16 which has its lateral edges bifurcated, the fnrcations being diverged and connected or merged into the sides of the tire as at 17. these furcations lying approximately' at right angles to the inner surfaces of the haunches of the arches, so that a pocket 18 is fo;m d at each side of the web 16, these pook ts and 'the web extending around the entire periphery'of the tire. I also preferably employ between cach crown and the web 16 a second tension web 19 connected to the sides of the tire end provided: at the points where the edges merge into said sides with fillets 20. These last mentioned Webs 19 are preernbly located kso that they lie between the curved inner periphery of each lt is a Well known fact in arch construction that arches fail in three diierent ways. ln the first of these the crow secondlyT the haunclies spread a art at their mp ends; thirdly, With the present tire the "space within the tire is filled with air usually at normal air pressure so that due to the presence of this nir andV the natural resiliency-of the tire any lendcncy to distortion of the crown portions due to running over small obstructions, such as pebbles and the like, will be localized because the webs 16 and 19 will ltend to prevent spreading of the feet or haunches of `the arches, the inherent resiliency of the tire permitting it to give sulliciently at the crown. If, however, a greater shock takes place then both the haunches and the feet of crown and the haunches ot' the arch.

the arches may spread apart suilicient to absorb this shoek'since the resiliency of the webs 16 and 19 permits such spreading, said resiliency causing the tire to at once resume' its original shape as soon as the stress producing the shock ceases. Moreover,`by reason of the llet and the bifurcations of the incident to such central web 16v the Stresses distortion are well distributed throughout the sides of the tire so that vthere is no pos-y sibility of tearing the Webs from saidjsides. It will be seen that;y when stress is put upon the web 16 by t'he spreading'o the arches,

the pnll will be through the furcations at the ed es of this-web which will tend to move t efurcations toward each other, pockets 18 permitting such movement.' ,I'I' the edges of the web 16, were not' bifurcated the greatest stress would come at the'center l collapses gy the feet Spread apart.

the.

be greatly increased. theV drawings, the crowx portions of the arches are formed interiorly aslbroad circular arcs While each side por?"Y the number of webs may of theedge of the web and the tendency-to..

tear the `web from the sides of the tire would".

As disclosed in 'tion of the complete tire also constitutes the nrc ot a circle, these latter arcs extendmgsubstantiallyffroni ,crown to crown of the two arches.

It .will be three webs but it will be obvious that where heu vier or lighter loads may require 'support be increased 'or diminished as yI se'e fit.

1t isnlso obvious that may be made in the forniand construction of the invention without departing from Ythe material principles thereof. It is not therefore desired to'conine the'invention to the exact `foriii herein shown and described but it is wished to include :ill such as properly come" within the scope `of -the appended claim. i i

Haring thus described the inventioliavhnt is claimed as new,- is l A tire of the class described comprising n bod)` i'orined of au inverted `and an erect arch joined foot to' foot, Vthe side walls of the arches beingconnected by fn transverse elhstic web at the common spring line ofjthe arches, said connectingiveb having its lateral edges bifurcated longitudinally.said furcations being divergent and "connect ed to the sidewalls' at sp tion lthereto. Y y

In testi1non}"whereo, I 'atiix inysignaturefin the presence of two witnesses. y v` JOHN il'. lllllilil. `Witnesses: A

L. NGILLIS, l I. Cnseaovn,

ace'd pointsjto provide 80 Vlateral pockets,` said furcatiiznis= lying apl'proxi'rnately at `rightangles 'to the surfaces ,offtheslde walls at thelrpolnts-of connor-1 

